Updated February 17, 2018 01:03

How do I change an individual account into a joint or trust account and vice versa?

Brokerage accounts cannot simply be retitled like most bank accounts. Instead, a brand new account with an updated title must first be opened and then the assets are “journaled” from the old account to the new account.

We have not yet automated journaling so we currently do not support moving positions in-kind from one Wealthfront account to another. Journaling is more complicated than it might appear because it requires not only transferring the securities held in an account, but all transaction history and open tax lot data as well. If not done correctly it can cause numerous issues for our clients, particularly those employing our Daily Tax-Loss Harvesting and Tax-Optimized Direct Indexing strategies. We plan to automate journaling between Wealthfront accounts by the end of 2018. We'll update this FAQ as soon as this service is available.

Please contact us if you absolutely must make this change due to a legal requirement or other pressing need (typically because of a death or divorce) and we'll handle your case in the order in which it was received.

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